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Arctic Air: a blast of fresh air!
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- Category: TV Talk
- Published on Thursday, 12 January 2012 23:22
- Written by Brian Fahrlander
- Hits: 36
Arctic Air is a drama set in the North West Territories (NWT). It's about an airline that works in harsh conditions, with all the complexity we've seen on shows like "Flying Wild Alaska" and others.
Unlike Wings, a comedy set in the departure room at a small airport, it's not limited to the one set, nor is it intentionally a comedy. And it does get outside!
Old aircraft, Inuit tribes and cultures, and the weather as the constant backdrop and bad guy, I've always had a soft spot for shows like this. It's the kind of place where the smart, the strong, and the courageous survive.
As a small boy it seemed to make sense: learn to fly, fly all the fighters and the rest, and when I start getting "old", I'd start bush flying, carrying mail to and from Alaska. That way, instead of winding up on a respirator for a decade, I'd one day hit a tree at high speed and become bear food, with a quick and meaningful end, instead.
The show is full of cliche but I love it anyway.
There's the daring female pilot making the most of her father's older aircraft, worried that her dad is working too hard. He is, of course. He (seems) to be modeled off a real one I watched on Discovery not long ago who manages to keep seventy aircraft and their statuses on a mere piece of paper all day, dispatching loads and handling catastrophes left and right all day. It may be cliche' but it's real; these things do, in fact happen and by people like they portray.
There's the over-worked father figure who owns the airline, and the perfect opportunity for short-time actors to cycle in and out, because pilots come and go from this business all the time. There's also a handsome Indian man who left this area to pursuit a business degree and a career that took him "South". He's loved, but you get the feeling the rest of the family feels like he abandoned them. You can tell this is a tight-knit group; it shows.
It also depicts prospectors without love.
These days, as the Democrat Party busily working to convince people onto welfare, anyone with money is the villain, I'm sure this played no small part in it's design.
As to the real prospectors, they must be opportunistic by nature; they're investing millions; they can't just sprinkle it over each and every opportunity- there's only so much to go around. But I'd like to think they're just being realistic here, and not turning into Leverage, where they ignore the fact the cast are criminals, and have millions in stolen cash, fighting people with millions in earned cash every week. Money alone does not make a person evil.
The beautiful backdrop does wonders for the show. And they seem to use actual Indians for it, too- and they need work like everyone else. I get the feeling most of this show is shot almost-on-location somewhere in Canada.
Also shown in this picture is the Executive Officer from Battlestar: Gallactica, playing a 'crazy doctor' of some sort. I'm sure he'll have fun in this role; he's good at those. And he does something early in the show that will endear him to many men that watch, too.
I was happily surprised with it's connections to a lesser-known work from Roddenberry, Andromeda. In that show, Lexa Doig plays an android that, despite her tiny size, she's quite powerful and a very responsible character. Meanwhile Lisa Ryder plays almost a 'female Captain Kirk'. This is interesting, as they both played opposite roles in "Jason X". There's one other connection to Andromeda in this series: a lessor character returning in the role of a landowner, down on his luck who's face you might remember. He used to race Harper.
I'm expecting that this show won't last very long; most because I like it. It has heart, it has a lot of people showing reasons to get interested in America's last wilderness, airplanes and the tougher nature America once had. There's not enough of that kind of message.
I really hope I'm wrong.